Elapsed-time recorder



De@ i6y 1924o Q. T. sca-HRMER ELAPSED TIME RECORDE R Filed April 22, 1922 5 sheets-sheet 1 Jja' V o @4 Zag ja@ @QQ-@marx Dec, 16, 1924. 1,519,633

C. T. SCHIRMEI?? ELAPSED TIME RECORDER Filed April 22l 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Mfg/ ELAPSED TIME RECORDER Filed April 229 1922 .'IIIIIIIHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHHIIIIIf 5 SheecS-Sheet 5 Dec. 16, 1924. 1,519,633

C. T. SCHIRMER ELAPSED TIME RECORDER Filed April 22, 1922 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 j@ f l J0 i g5 NIIIIIHIIIIIIIIHIIIHIIIIIlIlIII i5 a7 ya i Dec. 16,. 19.24

c. T. SCHHRMER ELAPSED TIME RECORDER Filed April 22, 1922 5 Sheets-Shed'l 5 TTV/O O O O um f M x, a u WM *m w im m vm m v w m m m u w Na u m b u u m w 9 9 8 ou ,o f .0 6 5 .8 4. Z

:uw: .O 0 O Ali Patented Dec. 16, 19.24.

:UNITI-:Dj STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CYRUS T. SCHIRMER, OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE HOLTZR- CABOT ELECTRIC COMPANY, 0F ROXB'URY, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

ELAPSED-TIME RECORDER.

`Application filed April 22, 1922.

To all whom it mag/ amera:

lBe it known that I, CYRUs T. SCHIRMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have-invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elapsed-Time Recorders; andvI do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

The present invention relates to an improvement in elapsed time recorders.

The object `of the invention is to produce an apparatus by which the time which elapses between the giving of a signal and the performance of another act by the person receiving the signal may be recorded. For example, a hospital might be equipped with such an apparatus, operating so that upon'the pushing of a button by a patient, a buzzer would be sounded at the nurses desk and a pilot lamp lit there at the same time. Upon the release of the pressure upon the push button by the patient, the buzzer would cease sounding, but the pilot lamp would remain lit, as also a lamp over or lat the patients room or bed. rI`hen the time when the patient. pushed the button would be recorded on a strip of paper, and the length of time which elapsed before the nurse reached the patient to answer the y call would be indicated. The nurse upon reaching the patient would operate the button in such a way as to turn ofi' the two lamps, -the one the nurses pilot lamp, the other the patients door or bed lamp, and thereby discontinue the measurement of the time, so' that the recorder would indicate the length of time whichelapsed between pushing the patients button and the arrival of the nurse at the patients bedside.

lVhile this use of the apparatus is one for which it was especially designed, it is adapt- -ed for other uses, and the invention consists in theelapsed time recorder 4hereinafterdescribed and particularly defined ip the claims.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred 4form of the invention, Fig. llis a diagrammatic illustration of the circuits and various pieces -of apparatus Serial No. 556,005.

comprising the complete system; Fig. 2 is a front view of the recording instrument; Fig. 3 is a. side elevation of the tion; Fig. 9 is a. detail showing the paper feed drive gearing; and'Fig. 10 is a section of the paper.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention is described as follows:

Referring first to Fig. 1, the apparatus consists of a recording instrument, of which two elements, viz, the solenoid 10 and one of the punch magnets and connections 11, are shown separately for,convenience of illustration, a relay l2, a master cock 13, and push buttons 14. The line wires 15, 16, supplying current to the apparatus, ente-r at the left of the diagram. The liney 15 hasthree connections, 17 running to the master clock, 18y to the solenoid, and a multiplicity mf connections 19 running to the patients push buttons 14. The solenoid 10 which actuates the recorder to advance the record strip through the recorder is energized by a connection made by the master clock at intervals of one minute, the connection 20 of the masterclock with the relay 12 operating to energize the relay, which Vthrows the armature21 over into position to engage the contact 22 so that the current of the line 15 passes through the connection 18, the solenoid 10, the connection 23, the contact 22, the4 armature 21, and thence to the line 16.

'nsA

At regular intervals the solenoid is energized the armature 21 when the'relay 12 is deenergized, that is to say, when it is in its normal position unacted upon by the clock. The

` patients push button is so arranged that when the button is first pushed and pressure is held on it by the patient, the contact of the connection 24 is made and continued so long as such pressure is exerted upon the push button (see Heeney Patent No. 1,170,063). When the patient releases the pressure upon the push button, this connection to the buzzer 25 ceases, and the buzzer stops. The other connectionsmade'by the patients push button are through lthe connection 28 Ito the door or bed lamp 29, which is connected on the otherv side with the connection 26, so that upon closing the circuits, the patients door lamp is illuminated. The third connection made by, pressure exerted upon the patients push button is through the connection 30,

which conveys current to the nurses pilot lamp 314 Pressure onthe push button closes all three of the circuits to the buzzer, door lamp and the nurses pilot lamp all at the same time, but while release of pressure on the push button opens the connection with the buzzer, it does-not open the connections to the door lamp and the nurses pilotlamp, asa result of which, even after the patient I has removed pressure from the button, 'these lamps continue lit asV an indication to the nurse that a call has been put in.l Thus, it

might happen that lthe nur se was engaged upon some other patient at the time the patient at 14 pushed his button. \Then the nurse, lupon returnin to her desk, or upon entering the hall, wou d notice the desk pilot lam-p or the door lamp, and could proceed immediately to the patient who rang from 14.- When the nurse reached the bedside of the patient at 14, she would open the push button, thereby opening the circuits to the door lamp and nurses pilot lamp. A fourth connection or circuit is closed by the patientupon pressing his push button. This p is through the connection 28 to the door lamp and the connection 32 to the punch magnet 11, to which it is connected at 33. The other connection from the punch magnet 1l, at 34,I leads through the-connection 35 to the connection 26. Thus, when the patients button is pushed, the punch magnet 11 isenergized,

' and it remains energized until the nurse lreaches lthe patients bedside and operates the push button to open the circuits again.

, The punch magnet operates a punch connected therewith in the recording instrument to punch a hole in the record strip passing throughthe instrument. The punch point 36, when operated by the punch magnetV l1, punches its hole in the record strip and re-` treats from enga ementwith the paper of the record strip, ut does not return to its original position, because the punch magnet remains energized. Now, the relation of thc record strip feed to the punch magnet and clock is as follows: Assuming the patients push buttons to have remained unoperated, on each minute the clock energizes the Isolenoid circuit, which operates by means presently to be described to feed the record strip forward a distance corresponding to a minute. This feeding forward of the record stripl continues uninterrup'tedly at all times. When no patients push button has been operated, the record vstrip remains unmarked, but

when a patients push button is operated,

the clock, the relay 12 opens the punch circuit (and incidentally the lamp circuits as well), the punch drops back to its inoperative position.v Thereupon the relay "is deenergized, and its armature moves back to the positionillustrated in F ig. 1, thereby rejelosing the patients circuits, re-energizing the punch, causing it again to punch a hole in the paper, and aga-in to illuminate the two lam s, and so on, at intervals of one minute, t e punch is operated to prick holes in the paper after each forward feeding movement, thereby producing arecord showing how many minutes elapsed from the time the patient pushed the button until the nurse operated the button to open'the patients circuit,and thus recording the length of time which elapsed from the giying of the .signal by the patient until the nurse reached the bedside.V This would be of great importance to the rnurses because it would prove ttheir alertness and attention, and incidentally the record strip would also showI how many patients push buttons were being operated per hour, and whether or not sufticient nursing attendance was supplied.

-Fig. 10 shows an operation of the record strip. The longitudinal spaces marked with the numerals 1 to 24 identify the patients push buttons, orstations, or rooms. Thus a" lll lll

to open the patients circuit, it is shown that live minutes, or thereabouts, elapsed before response was made to the call. The paper pricks 41 show that atabout 2 :51 P. M. the patient at station 14 rang in a call which was answered in about three minutes. So also, the paper pricks 42 indicate that the patient at station 19 rang in a call at 2:55, which was not answered until 3 :17, so faras from the record appears. Now, it might have been that the nurse, upon reaching the bedside of the patient at station 19, found the emergency so pressing that the worky of relieving the patient was attended to before the opening of the circuit was attended to. Passing now to the recording instrument, the record strip is wound in a roll 50, which lis supported onV a roll carrier 51, the end of which is received in bearings 52 in the frame pieces 53. A weight roll 54 presses on the paper and o'ers a slight tension to the draW-' ing of the paper from the roll. The record strip 60-drawn from the paper roll 50, passes around the bar 61, and thence over` the surface of the platen roll 63, which is a steel roll covered with felt. From this platen roll the record strip 60 passes on to the feed roll 64, over which' it passes between the roll proper and a pressure roll 65. `The record strip 60 is prvided with holes 66 in its marginl which receive the feed teeth 67 ofthe'feed roll 64. From the feed roll .64 ythe record strip 60 drops dow'n from the machine. 'Y The feed roll 64 has attached to it a gear 68, which meshes lwith the gear 69, which, in turn, is driven by the pinion v 70. The connection between the gears 68 and the feed roll 64 is by means of the friction washer 71, the washer being attached to the feed roll and pressing with elastic pressure on the. gear 68 by which they are held together in the manner of a friction clutch The shaft of `the feed roll is provided with a knurled hand wheel 72, so `that the feed roll may be turned by hand without movement of the driving train by which the roll is normally actuated. The pinion 70 is connected with the ratchet wheel 73, which is held from backward rotation by the spring pressed pawl 7 4 and is racked forward by means of thegsolenoid vlever 7 5 carrying a l"spring pawl 76, which, upon each actuation ing levers, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7. These punch magnets carry/"on their punch levers a seriesV of 24k punches arranged, as shown in Fig. 6, in a row, each punch pricking the paper at a place designating a station, so that each punch magnet represents a station. A, description of one of the punchmagnets will sufiice for all. i

Referring to Fig. 7, the coil is provided witha core 81 and a back piece 82, by which itis attached to the frame of the, instrument. 84 pivotedat 85 on the post 83. The pole of the core 81 is cut away short of its end so as to localize the magnetic field at 86 near the end of theH pole piece. rIhe armature carries an angle piece 87, which projects lalong the side of the post 83 and is pressed A post 83 carries the armatureV upon by a spring 88 secured to the post 83,

which normally tends to move the armature into the position shown in Fig. The armature supports a punch lever 90, pivoted at 91 thereon. A.' screw' 92 p'asses through a hole in the end of the punch lever and screwsinto va threaded hole inthe armature 84. A spring 93 is provided between the en'd of the punch" lever 90 and the armature, and normally tends to hold the punch lever in position with relation to the armature, as shown' in Fig. 7. When the coil 80 yis energized, the pole of the core 81 attracts tthe armature 84, and thus the punch lever 90 is swung to cause thepu'nch 94 to prick a hole in the paper by striking the paper where it is supported by the platen roll a light blow. rIhe pivoting of the punch lever permits the punch to swing .'beyond the position which it would normally occupy under* the attraction of the magnet on the armature. The spring 93 serves to yieldingly hold the armature 84 and the end of the punch lever 90 in predetermined relation to one another and affords easy an-dfaccurate adjustment of the perforating pin 94 in relation to the roll 63. By screwing the screw 92 in or out, the desired' adjustment 'of the perforating pin may be secured. "Remembering, now,.that when the magnet is energized, it remains energized, it will VVbe seen that the punch moves fai enough to penetrate the paper, and then springs back a little so that the punch is not in continuous contact with the paper. The record paper is moved ahead once each minute, and during the time that the pape-r is 'being moved, namely, during the extremely short interval of time infeach minute, the punches are prevented from penetrating the paper. The punch magnets are, however, in readiness to operate at all other times whenever .a button is pressed. The only condition under which a call would not be recorded is when the call was made and reset Within the very. short interval of time that the' paper is being moved. The 'series of punch magnets nearer the platen roll are provided with short punch levers 95, while the two outside series when it is operated.

A connector plate 100 of insulating material is supported across the top of the ca \led the station connectors.

frame of the machine as shown,.and carries t enty-four connectors 101, which may This pla-te also carries a connector 102, which may be called the relay connector, and two connectors 103, which may be called the solenoid connectors. The outside wires 104,running to the connectors 101 come from they various. stations or patients push buttons, and the inside wires 105 from these connectors respectively pass each to one of the punch magnets. The relay connector 102 on the outside is connected by a wire 106 with the contact 27 of the relay, and the wires 107 running down through the hole in the connector supporting plate from t-he connector 102 run to the other terminals of the several punch magnets. The wires 107 are common to all the punch magnets, so that -there are only two wires 107 coming from the connector plate at the-top which are connected to one of the terminals on each of the punch magnets.

A wire 108 from the outside running to the connector 103 is connected with the contact 22 of the relay. 'A wire 109 on the front connector 103, as shown in Fig. 4 is connected with the line wire 15. Then the two wires 4110 from the two connectors 103 run down to the solenoid.v y

Fig. 5 shows a cross-section of the connector .supporting plate 100 taken on the line 5-5, Fig. 4.

The particular form of p-unch magnet used herein forms the subject of an application filed by the present inventor January 5, 1922,Y and operates very silently because the blow struck by the punch is received against the felt covered platen roll, and the armature does not strike any part when the magnet is energized. The solenoid lever 75 is provided with stops 120, shown in Fig. 3, eachbeing provided with pieces of felt 'against which the lever will strike at the extremes of its movements. Thus, when the solenoid is "energized andthe lever ils raised, it strikes against the upper stop and without any audible blow, and when the solenoid is deenergized, the' core drops and the solenoid lever strikes against Athe lower stop, similarly without sound.

The record strip upon closure of theifeeding circuit under the influence of the master clock by thearmature of the relay 12 operates to perform the desired feeding of the paper without tearing it. This result is secured because the solenoid 10is inherently somewhat slow in action, due to some extent tothe presence of an air cushion above the plunger 78, or its dash pot effect, and furthermorethe link 77 between the plunger 78 and solenoid lever 75 is purposely made yielding so that upon upward movement of the plunger 78 when the solenoid is energized, the combined eHect of the cushion above the plunger and the yielding spring link 77 operates to eliminate or to smooth out a considerable portion of the suddenness of the motion imparted to the solenoid lever 75. Furthermore the gear train by which the movements of the lever 75 are `transmitted to the feed roll 63 still further reduces this suddenness of motion so that as a result when the solenoid is suddenly energized by closure of the relay 12, its operation lis caused to turn the feed roll 63 gradually,

thus eliminating all tendency toward tearing the paper. This feature of the vinvention is conducive to the successful operation of the system. ,x

The instrument is prepared for use by lproviding it with ,a roll of record strip which is put in place as shown in Fig. 3, the end of the strip being brought forward over Ythe rod'61, thence passed'behind the platen roll 63, thence forward over the feed roll 64,

and down between the feed roll and the presser roll 65. The knurled wheel 72 may then be turned by handto bring the proper time line on thefrecord strip opposite the punch roll, the friction clutch connection between the feed roll and its drive mechanism slipping as the adjustment is made. The printed surface of the paper is toward the front of the machine, so that the portion discharged from the instrument may be examined withoutremoval, like a piece of ticker tape. f

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is A .1. In a time recorder system, the combination offa recording instrument provided with a record strip'and/v means for intermittently feeding the record stri including a Nstrip engaging device, a so enoid and a tion of a recording instrument provided with a record strip and means for intermittently feeding the record strip including a feedl roll,-a solenoid having a plunger, a gear train connected with the feed roll and yielding connections between the solenoid plunger and gear train.

3. In a time recorder system, the combination of a recording instrument provided with a record strip and means for intermittently feeding the record strip including a feed roll, lasolen'oid having a plunger, 'a gear train connected with the feed roll, and means,` for intermittently actuating the gear train and feed roll upon movement ofthe plunger when the solenoid is energized for intermittently feeding the record strip including a dash pot controlling device for preventing sudden operation of the feeding l, device.

ombination, a clock, a recording instrument 5. An elapsed time recorder having, in

mprising a magnet, an armature, a marker yieldingly pivoted on the armature and a tape feed roll, a station push button, a circuit including the magnet and the push button for normally maintaining the magnet energized While the push button is depressed, feeding means for the tape roll, connections between the clock and the feeding'means for operating the latter at time intervals, and means for de-energizing and energizing the magnet to actuate the marker when the feeding means is actuated.

6. An elapsed time recorder having, in combination, a clock, a recording instrument comprising a magnet, an armature, a marker yieldingly pivoted on the armature and a tape feed roll, a relay having two contacts, a stationary push button, a circuit including the push button, the magnet' and one relay contact, connections between the clock and the relay for operating the latter at time intervals, feeding means for the tape roll, and a circuit including the second contact of the relay and the roll feeding means andradapted to be closed when the relay is energized, whereby the magnet will be de-energized and again energized to attuate the marker at time intervals corresponding to the operation of the relay.

oYnUs "r. SCHIRMER. 

